The bridal procession had barely entered the mountains when several dark shapes burst from the woods, tore through the thick fog, and slammed into the crowd.
The villagers seemed to have expected them. Raising their torches, they shouted:
"Quick! Beat these beasts to death!"
"Don't let those mountain demons hurt the bride!"
Amid the uproar, the villagers' eyes reddened. Their pitchforks stabbed forward, pinning the dark shapes to the ground before jabbing them again and again.
Chen Mu watched coldly. He could see them clearly.
Three long-haired monsters had emerged from the forest, each about the size of an adult.
They looked like monkeys, but sturdier, with red fur covering even their faces.
They looked ferocious, yet the villagers stopped them with pitchforks and pinned them down.
Before long, they were howling. Bloodied holes covered their bodies, and they collapsed, never to rise again.
"What on earth are those things?"
Wang Yong and Lu Qian were carrying the bridal sedan with several villagers.
At the sight of the commotion ahead and the red-furred monsters lying in pools of filthy blood, a chill crawled through them.
Chen Mu sent out a trace of Divine Sense to probe them and frowned as well.
The red-furred monsters had human faces.
They looked like the outsiders who had entered the mountains earlier and never returned. Somehow, they had become monsters like mountain demons.
"Leave them. Keep moving."
He gave the order to the sedan bearers.
Wang Yong and Lu Qian had no choice but to move on, and the villagers behind them followed.
The procession resumed its clanging, noisy march into the mountains.
After a few steps, Chen Mu noticed that Dongyang Mountain was very different from Mangdang Mountain.
Mangdang Mountain had gentle terrain, with deep forests, marshes, hills, and valleys that housed many